


Every Tuesday Night

by lady_ragnell



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-27
Updated: 2011-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-28 06:38:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/304840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_ragnell/pseuds/lady_ragnell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur and Merlin both show up at the movies every Tuesday night, and Gwen and Morgana look on and sigh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Tuesday Night

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Каждый вторник](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4106167) by [bitter_zephyr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitter_zephyr/pseuds/bitter_zephyr)



> Written for a kinkme_merlin prompt [here](http://kinkme-merlin.livejournal.com/11649.html?thread=8980097#t8980097).

Morgana doesn’t know when she first notices them.

No, that’s not quite right. She notices them separately right away, the first Tuesday they come into the not-too-crowded cinema in late September. The blond one first, because she thinks he’s the army brat who spent a few months at her high school and got stuck in a closet with her during Seven Minutes in Heaven, and she wants to know if he’d recognize her, and how horrified he would look, considering he never spoke to her again after that party. He sits a row in front of her on the far right, and she points him out to Gwen and snickers into her popcorn. Gwen is the one who points the dark-haired one out (“Morgana, look! No, don’t be too obvious. Far left, row in front of us, that’s the guy who fixed my computer when it crashed on move-in weekend. He’s like some sort of wizard with technology. Martin, maybe? Should I say hello? He probably sees hundreds of people every week, though, he wouldn’t remember me.” Morgana is forced to calm her down by going to the lobby for Skittles, and she misses the first preview, which is clearly the most important part of any film-going experience).

What she means is, she doesn’t know when she notices _them_ as an entity. She does think it’s sort of weird that when Gwen’s computer dies again in early October and she and the dark-haired boy (whose name proves to be Merlin) bond over coffee and he doesn’t come sit with them, even though he waves and chats with them after the film every week. She thinks it’s even weirder when the army brat (“Arthur Penn,” he introduces himself, like she didn’t remember) marches up to her in her Anthropology lecture one day and asks if she’s ignoring him or if she really doesn’t remember and they spend the whole lecture sniping at each other and he doesn’t move his seat either, because he isn’t the type to be shy.

So she’s very aware of them separately, but they’ve never given a sign of knowing each other. That makes it a surprise when she glances at Arthur when a soldier comes out in the week’s movie the second Tuesday in October (she likes to check up on him, as she’s known he was gay since he didn’t try to feel her up in that closet in high school. Coincidentally, she’s known she was gay since he didn’t try to feel her up in a closet and she was glad rather than offended) and he is looking at Merlin. Merlin is beaming at the screen and eating popcorn, and there are at least three people in the row between them, but Morgana suspects they might be invisible for all Arthur notices them.

It’s even more surprising when she catches Merlin ( _Merlin_ , of all people, who can’t talk to anyone without blushing. Honestly, he’s worse than Gwen, and it’s very hard to be more awkward than Gwen. It’s one of her many charms) glancing at Arthur when he bursts out laughing at some stupid joke that nobody else gets. Merlin looks charmed.

*

“Gwen,” Morgana says that night after they get back to their room, “I need you to talk to Merlin.”

“Why wouldn’t you talk to him yourself?”

“He’ll think I have an ulterior motive.”

“You always have an ulterior motive.”

“Fair point, well made. But I want you to ask him what he thinks of Arthur. Well, he might not know Arthur’s name, but they were looking at each other tonight, and I have suspicions.”

Gwen sighs. “The last time you tried to matchmake you set me up on dates with Lance and Leon and didn’t figure out that I wanted you instead until I told you so. If they like each other, they’ll work it out. Now come to bed, okay?”

Morgana recognizes the look on Gwen’s face and she is not an idiot. She turns out the light and comes to bed.

*

After that, she spends more time watching the boys than watching the movies, and it’s like watching a tennis match. If Merlin is looking at Arthur, Arthur is engrossed in whatever’s happening on the screen. The second Merlin gets distracted by a clever bit of dialogue or an explosion or just a good bit of the score (Merlin is easily distracted, and it’s incredibly amusing when he breaks into a conversation by asking if anybody likes oranges, and oh, is that his Biology professor over there?), Arthur goes back to staring at Merlin.

(“The whole thing would be adorable,” Morgana says late one night after a horror film where Merlin kept practically jumping out of his seat and Arthur actually looked worried about him, “if it weren’t so stupid.”

“You tried to set me up with Lancelot while you pined for me. You have no right to judge.”)

Morgana tries. She really does. She drags Arthur to the cafeteria with her one Wednesday, because Merlin usually eats with them on Wednesdays, but Merlin picks up an extra shift at the IT Center. She takes Merlin to an extra credit Anthropology lecture that Arthur skips because he has disgustingly good test scores. Gwen laughs and tells her to stay out of it, but Morgana catches her shaking her head at them Tuesday nights as well. She suspects that all of the regulars are starting to notice, it’s that obvious.

*

One Tuesday in the middle of November, Merlin is ill. Gwen tells Morgana, worried that he’s running a fever and says he won’t be at the movie, which is a pity, because it’s the newest superhero movie and Merlin has an adoration for superheroes that Morgana doesn’t pretend to understand. It isn’t until they get to the movie and Arthur sits in his usual seat and freezes when he casually looks left during the previews that she realizes what this means. Arthur goes through emotions so fast he must be getting whiplash, from annoyed to worried to almost-frantic to sulking in less than five seconds.

He’s beyond grumpy in Anthropology the next morning, and Morgana is impressed when he takes her aside at the end of class. “That guy, the one you and Gwen talk to after the movies. I happened to notice he wasn’t there last night.”

“Merlin?” Morgana might be projecting, but she thinks he looks a little swoony when he finally learns the name of the object of his affection. “He was ill, poor thing.”

“Ill? Is he okay?”

“I imagine he’ll be back next week.”

Arthur nods. “Good.” He walks away, and she definitely isn’t projecting when she hears him mutter “Merlin” to himself again as he goes.

*

The next Tuesday is the last day of classes before Thanksgiving, so the crowd is a little thin on the ground. Arthur is there early, however, and he takes a deep breath before he sits down--one seat closer to the center of the row than usual. When Merlin comes in five minutes later, he grins so wide Morgana’s half-afraid his face will split in half and moves in a seat himself. He actually throws a smile in Arthur’s direction, and Arthur turns bright red and hardly looks at him the whole movie, even though he clearly hates it. The idiot.

Gwen looks at Morgana as if she suspects something, but for once, Morgana didn’t do anything.

After a short trip to Gwen’s house for Thanksgiving, Morgana arrives in the movie theater the next Tuesday wondering what will happen. Arthur is early again, and he moves in two more seats. Merlin, perhaps wary after the shameful way Arthur ignored him the week before, only moves in one. Arthur’s face falls, and Morgana looks at the ten seats still between them and wonders if they’ll actually meet before finals.

They don’t. Arthur moves in another seat all three weeks, and Merlin only moves once, with a hesitant smile that Arthur actually returns this time. Finals week, Arthur is about to leave directly after the movie, as he always does, and Merlin blindsides him with another open grin. “Great movie, yeah?”

“Yeah,” says Arthur, sounding dazed, and walks out without even waving at Morgana as he usually does.

That night, Gwen concedes defeat and says if they haven’t managed to get up the balls to speak to one another by spring break, she’ll break Arthur’s computer and send him to Merlin. Morgana thinks this is an excellent idea and shows her appreciation for her girlfriend’s brain.

*

Four Tuesdays pass during break, and Morgana relaxes and goes skiing and pines a bit for Gwen, as her parents have dragged her to the Alps and refuse to bring her girlfriend along to Europe with them. The pining overshadows the cinema love story a bit, but once she gets back to campus and reunites with Gwen, she goes back to plotting.

As it turns out, she doesn’t need to plot. Arthur gets to the theater embarrassingly early the first week after break (which means “before Morgana and Gwen,” who are almost always among the first five there) and sits nearly at the center of his row, just one seat to Morgana’s right. Merlin arrives early for him, which means the lights haven’t quite gone down yet, and he takes a deep breath and moves in until there’s only one seat in between he and Arthur, which means he’s sitting directly in front of Gwen, who grins when he only gives her a distracted wave. Arthur looks like Christmas came almost a whole year early, or perhaps three weeks late, and actually turns towards Merlin. “You have a new scarf,” he blurts, and Gwen chokes on a bite of popcorn.

Merlin blinks at him. “My mother bought it for me.” He sticks his hand out. “I’m Merlin, by the way.”

Arthur manages to stop grinning like an idiot and takes Merlin’s hand, holding it a bit longer than necessary across the seat between them. “Merlin. I’m Arthur.” Merlin goes brilliantly red and snatches his hand back so fast he spills his soda all over the floor, and probably his shoes. Arthur, who probably would have been the perfect Boy Scout if he’d ever lived in one place long enough, happens to have a pocket full of napkins, and by the time they’ve cleaned up the mess they’ve managed a few more exchanges, Merlin stammering and Arthur all smooth flirtation. Neither sticks around after the movie, but it’s a start.

(“I want to put them in a box,” Gwen declares that night, pulling off her hat. “I want to put them in a box and hug them and make them be adorable at each other all the time.” Morgana is forced to agree.)

*

For several weeks, the one-seat space remains, but Merlin and Arthur are always there early, just a few minutes after Morgana and Gwen get there, and they talk about movies at first, and then about classes, and then about everything. Sometimes they remember to include Morgana and Gwen in the conversation, and it all feels rather sweet and double-date-ish, and Morgana decides she was clearly meant to be a matchmaker. Whenever Arthur says something funny or charming, Merlin looks surprised for a second before bursting out laughing. Whenever Merlin goes on one of his obscure conversational tangents, Arthur just stares at him, clearly not listening but also just as clearly enjoying the view, and Merlin doesn’t seem to care about the listening part much.

Morgana watches in glee as they start talking after the movies as well, arguing about quality and subject matter and whether or not the dialogue was wooden. Arthur steals Merlin’s popcorn and Merlin gets a large the next week. Merlin steals Arthur’s Skittles and the next week Arthur shows up with a huge bag of them.

Two weeks before spring break, Morgana is starting to get impatient again. She has pumped Arthur for information and he sulks because apparently he’s seen Merlin precisely once outside the movie theater. She makes Gwen talk to Merlin, and Merlin despairs that he spends his life working or locked in his room fiddling about with computers or doing homework. Something must be done, she decides, or they will pine forever.

*

Miraculously, though, they manage it on their own, because two weeks before spring break, Merlin is sick again. “He overworks himself,” Gwen frets. “I’m awfully worried about him.”

“He clearly needs some relaxation,” Morgana says, and drags her to the cinema.

Arthur’s face falls when Gwen leans forward and informs him that Merlin won’t be coming, and he looks even worse when Morgana says it’s because Merlin is ill. “Will he be okay?” Gwen nods and pats his shoulder, comforting as always. Arthur scowls. “He could have told me.”

“Do you have his phone number?” Morgana asks, voice tart. Arthur shakes his head. “Are you even friends with him on Facebook?” A more reluctant shake of the head. Morgana wishes she could smack him. “Then how was he supposed to tell you? He couldn’t exactly divine last week that he was going to get sick.”

Arthur sulks the whole movie, even though he usually likes horror films.

*

The next week, when Merlin arrives, Arthur has his phone out and mulish expression on his face, and when Merlin tries to leave their customary space, he grabs his wrist and drags him over. “Gwen tells me you were sick.”

Merlin shoots a betrayed look back at Gwen, who just sighs at Morgana like this is all her fault. “I’m better now.” He coughs, and looks sheepish. “Well, mostly.”

“I would have come over and brought a movie or something,” Arthur mutters, and it’s his turn to cast Morgana a glance, one that clearly says _If you stick your nose in this, I will kill you_.

Merlin blinks at him. “But you love horror movies. I wouldn’t have wanted you to miss.”

“Nonetheless, you are giving me your phone number. I won’t have that happening again.” Merlin’s face lights up, and they grin at each other long enough that Morgana has to consider Gwen’s putting-them-in-a-box proposition again, because they are cuter than puppies, and she really likes puppies.

They exchange phone numbers and last names (after how many months? Honestly, boys!) and both look stupidly happy while the previews start.

Halfway through the last preview, Arthur reaches out and grabs Merlin’s hand. Merlin gives him a panicked look for a moment before Arthur smiles at him, a bit shy, and he melts.

This week, it’s a romantic comedy, and though both of them hate romantic comedies, they still have massive smiles on their faces and keep catching each other looking. Morgana decides what’s going on right in front of her is much more interesting than the uninspired star vehicle on the screen, and ignores Gwen’s hisses that she’s being obvious.

During the boring bits (which is most of the movie, as far as they are concerned), the boys whisper in each other’s ears, and even though it’s dark, Morgana can guess that Merlin is bright red and Arthur is looking smug. She holds Gwen’s hand and grins. It seems they won’t have to resort to the Laptop Offensive after all.

Morgana manages to get sucked into the movie after the first half hour, much to her shame, but near the end, while the hero and heroine are having their ridiculous misunderstanding that could be solved quite easily if they would just talk, she happens to glance at Arthur and Merlin, and instantly grabs Gwen’s arm and tries not to screech her glee for the whole theater to hear.

Because there, after months and months, are Arthur and Merlin, movie, popcorn, and conversation forgotten, lips pressed together and mouths just opening as they get into it.

Gwen grabs her arm right back and tells her to let them have their privacy. Morgana obeys, but when she peeks during the credits, the boys are still wrapped around each other. She smiles.

*

The next week, all four of them grab dinner before the movie and sit in a row, Morgana reluctantly shifting away from the dead center seats to be fair.

It doesn’t really matter. She doesn’t think Arthur or Merlin sees a second of the movie, even though it is about superheroes.


End file.
